Trenton data center ban passes with nearly 80% of the vote

Journal-News ^

[Tench_Coxe]

The vote to ban data centers in Trenton has passed, according to unofficial election results Tuesday, Nov. 3.

With 100% of precincts reporting, the measure passed by a landslide 80% to 20%.

Trenton resident Barry Blankenship, who led efforts in the city to get the ban on the ballot, said seeing the results was emotional.

“Everybody’s just so happy right now that a group of citizens came together, stood up for an issue — Democrats, Republicans alike,” he said. “We stood together and we beat a city.”

Looking forward, he hopes the ban will keep an 18-building Amazon Web Services data center from developing within the city and could rein in the electric use of a four-building AWS data center already under construction.

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[Tench_Coxe]

IMHO, this was another issue percolating beneath the November shellacking. The Trump administration cavalierly (my view) dismissed concerns on the data center issue.

I think a better case could have been made regarding data center construction.

[PGR88]

“data centers” as a political issue is that it was a democrat, fear-driven, political exercise. It matches with the thinking of their leftist supporters

Democrats and the deep-state are in fact ALL FOR crypto, AI, data-centers, etc... and the notion that they will be stopped is absurd. I don’t care how many municipalities rage about this.

What the Left wants is CONTROL of these things, their political cronies installed and their grift guaranteed. So they will stoke fear until their “sensible regulation” is installed.

Remember how pre-Musk, Twitter was 80% former FBI and CIA agents?

Yeah - like that.

[Tench_Coxe]

Oh, I agree with you. That was my big question on data centers-what are they being used for? My guess: mass surveillance.

[cgbg]

This issue varies by region in the country.

In the Northeast the Public Utility Commissions regulate electric rates using Marxist principles—in other words everybody must pay for data center electric capacity requirements.

Given that constraint any Northeast community would be fools to vote “yes” on a data center.

[ComputerGuy]

The buildings under construction may be a sticky wicket.

[escapefromboston]

Country is big enough to put these things if most people don’t want it near them (for whatever reason even if it’s silly)

[Paul R.]

But the left is all in for mass surveillance... at least of their opponents.

Perhaps Federal legislation is needed, to the effect that data centers cannot be used for surveillance of private citizens and related applications.

(Enforcement could be “interesting”.)

Anyway, my 1st reaction to this article was:

Xi laughs.

[Paul R.]

The very large data center being built some miles away from me will include a power plant to generate substantially more electricity than the data center uses, plus provide battery backup to the local grid.

[rx]

China’s CCP has spent a lot of money to influence American bans on US Data Centers. It’s obvious that China will build data centers as fast as they possibly can, believing that the future belongs to the leading practitioners of Artificial (Super) Intelligence.

[DugwayDuke]

Tench_Coxe wrote: “That was my big question on data centers-what are they being used for? My guess: mass surveillance.”

That’s the ill-informed conspiracy theories that contributed to the blue election victories. Data centers are used for things like on-line shopping, streaming, cell phones, internet, air traffic control, online banking, remote working, logistics to ensure items are in stock at your local walmart, etc, etc. Basically, anything you do on a smart phone or a computer. The modern world doesn’t exist without data centers.

[chickenlips]

You’re right.

But when people find a boogey man they don’t let go of it easily.

[jeffersondem]

“That was my big question on data centers-what are they being used for?”

To process electric computer signals - like the one I'm sending to you now.

[chickenlips]

Watch the price of natural gas, because that is how the cost can be passed on to you for the fuel for those turbines.

[BipolarBob]

What state is this Trenton located???

[Tench_Coxe]

Down towards Cincinnatti Ohio.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Just outside Manassas National Battlefield Park there has been a gas turbine generating system for years. Totally anoying to visit the hallowed ground with the machinery humming in the distance. Ironically the park is located in Prince William County, a stone's throw from Loudoun County. Oh joy.

One uninteded consquence of the data center frenzy is that global warming is no longer a threat. Overnight the parasites have cured "global warming". You can't walk the streets of Silicon Valley anymore with out bumping into a thousand AI chubbies.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I think there is a lot of fear mongering about data centers.

I’ve heard that anyone who uses the internet or a cellular phone is using a data center.

I’ve heard there are already numerous data centers around the country. And around the world.

I’ve heard the data center supposedly use power and water. And that means we should be opposed to them.

To listen to some of the rhetoric I got the impression that liberals were against data centers, while conservatives were in favor of data centers.

But I heard so many conflicting things about the power and water usage, and the zoning of properties being used for data centers, that I wonder what i’m supposed to think of data centers.

I also wonder where the heck this issue came from. As a political issue, when i’ve also heard, data centers have been around for decades.

Why weren’t data centers talked about in 2024, or other previous election years, if data centers have really been operating for decades. But nobody really talked about it.